PS5 External storage

jaco Wales

New member
Joined
Feb 28, 2025
Messages
4
Karma
0
Hi im new here, glad to see alot of folks willing to help out with all our questions,
because I need some important questions answered……. so thanks in advance if you respond:)

First question

Do i still need my ps4 disk if i transfer ps4 games onto external HD connected to my PS5?
I wanted to give my kid the disk so I can play it on my ps5 and he can play it on his PS4?
or will i need the disk one day to play that game? It seems sony mahy. not like this I dont know.

2nd:
if i want to move over Read dead 2 PS4 game to External HD, which disk is it, there are 2, and
can i play RDR2 on my PS5 directly from external HD without those 2 disks?

3 true or false...
Can someone download their ps4 games to External HD (on PS5 ) and then just sell or give away the original CD?

4
I want to invest into a big external HD for my ps4 games on my PS5, the reason is I do not like getting up from
couch and walkin to my tv and taking out and putting in disks, will a external HD let me just click on the games
on my PS5 and they come up? ( Like the games i bought in PSSTORE do)

5
is it wiser to buy the actual game disks then to buy/download them to your PS account?
I would think its better to have the disks for resale value one day…. ?

I just like buying from PSSTORE because I do not need to get up and put in game disks all the time,
this is why i am thinking of getting an External HD for my PS4 games ( i know i cant work PS5 games) or can it lol?

So those are my questiuons guys… it would be so wonderful to have all my ps4 games on a external HD
and be able to change games without getting up and swapping disks.


...but with games that are 2 disks will they also work that way? I suppose one is the installer, and the DATA
disk would be stored on external correct? So sounds like I m answering my own question…. ??

thanks in advance:)))
 
1: Yes you’d still need the disc to play the games.
2: Same answer for RD2RDr2.
3: false as the discs are still needed.
4: digital games can be played from the external drive but as mentioned you’d still need to insert the disc for games bought from a store.
5: If a game I want is available on disc then I’d buy it, however some digital versions of games come with extras which are not included with the disc - mini soundtrack, avatars etc.

PS5 games can be stored on an external drive but would require moving to the internal drive in order to play which takes time. You could purchase an internal drive as extra storage. I have a 2TB drive.

Games which usually have 2 discs used to require the disc to be swapped part way through the game but I can’t see that being the case with modern console games. Perhaps the other disc contains any dlc or other extras - if so then this would be needed.
 
Thankyou!!!

I think i get it now… you still need the :pS4 disk to play the game even if you move it to the USB external storage,
..you still have to pop it in, its not true when people say “you can play your ps4 games from an external HD”,
yes if you pop in the disk… they leagve that part out.

I understand now, if you move all your ps4 games over to an external HD you will save some space on your consoles HD/HD's
but its only a quarter of the full file(game) , not the full game, we still need the disk!

Not knowing what would happen, I tried to move a ps4 game over to my usb external HD, and then try to run it(Play game) without
the DISK…. nope didnt work, it asks to pop in the disk. I see it moved over about 8GIGS of a very large game PS4 Dead Island,
so its not copying the whole data disk to external HD like i thought, just a fraction of it, thats why we need the disk, this is also
smart for Sony to protect their games, otherwise everyone would have the same Idea as I.

So really this sux, all i have read was “ you can move/load all your PS4 games onto an external HD, and thrn play them directly
fro PS5. NOT TRUE…well A little of this is true, you are running SOME data from the USB drive instead of internal, but you still need the disk,

thankyou for the answers


what a bummer,

and i feel bad for all the folks that thought like me… that you can really play the game straight from the external HD haha
 
YES, i successfully was able to move my PSSTORE purchased games over to my new USB External drive,
and that would help people out if they are low on space but my concern is not space, if I move a PSSTORE purchased
game over to my external, what would that help me?( If my concern is not saving space) I can still play it straight from my internal
console storage or my internal SSD, actually it will load and play faster, to keep it on PS5..so for me, there is no reason to move
a digital game over since I do not have a storage issue. I was more concerned about my DISKS, moving ps4 full games
over to external, have a nice library of full games that I can play without the disks……. keep dreamin yes? lol

perhaps its time to copy disks? how bout a DL-BDR BLU RAY with NERO BURNING ROM ?
 
Yes, it’ll tell you to insert the disc.
The sites were probably referring to digital purchases, they mentioned disk then I wonder how they did it.
I suspect it just transfers the base game &/or the license to activate the game hence why it needs to disc to authenticate the key/license to say you own the game.
Digital PS 4 games can be played from the external drive - mine work fine.

You’d come up with copyright protection on the disc - anything which circumvents this cannot be discussed - in any case I doubt the disc would be read by normal burning software.
 
YES THANKYOU:)

there are alot of folks out there thinking that they can run the ps4 games straight from their external USB drive,
they are in for a bummer lol

great forum thankyou for this!
 
You’re welcome.

Probably how these tutorials are worded, they don’t mention that a user still needs the disc after moving the game to an external drive.

Thanks.
 
Back
Top